Adjusting to a New Season

It wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. Yet, here we are. The first holiday our daughter can’t come home.

I am so grateful for something my mother-in-law said to me years ago. The kids were still little. You know, when the days are long but the years are short. I don’t remember the circumstances, just what she said. She talked about how she had enjoyed her children at every stage. How each age brought with it a new challenge and a new blessing. For some reason that has stuck with me all these years.

As our children would arrive at a new stage in growing up, I would think of all the things to enjoy about this new stage. Sure, I missed parts of the stages they were outgrowing. Yet the joy at the new things they could do overpowered that sadness.

Our daughter is in a new stage. She just married, and they will be hosting her husband’s family for Thanksgiving this year. They live too far away for her to come home.

Yesterday we talked on the phone at least six times. We must have spent two hours talking. We talked while I was in Walmart picking up a few things. We talked while she was in Walmart grabbing a couple of last minute items. We talked while she was baking her first pies and I was making dough for rolls. We talked about their new home, the dogs, and the new friendships that are beginning to develop with new neighbors. We talked about what we were baking. She asked me questions, and shared some recipes that she had found. She even shared her secret for perfectly cooked and peeled hard boiled eggs.

It was during one of those calls that I nearly fell to my knees in gratitude. Not only has she reached a new stage, I have too. Our relationship has changed from that of a mother raising a daughter to a friendship. It is an amazing new time!

And I can’t even begin to describe how proud I am of this beautiful young woman who is now starting her own traditions with her husband.

It’s a new place for the two of us. It seems like yesterday she was still in pigtails, and we were arguing about what she was going to wear for family pictures. Today seemed so far away. Yet here we are. And once again the joy of watching her try new things and the blessings of the conversations we have outweighs the sadness of what is gone.

While I wish that everyone’s schedules could work out for every single special day, I know that can’t be expected. And even though she won’t physically be here with us today, I know that she is having a wonderful time making memories with her new family. And for that, I am grateful.